THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE VARIED RESOURCES
All of the varied resources that con
tributed to make the nations of antiquity
materially great are still available for the
future enrichment of the people dwelling
in those same lands.
Herodotus, writing of Lower Mesopo
tamia in the noontide of its prosperity,
declared: "It is far the best corn land of
all the countries I know. It is so superb
that the average yield is two hundred
*fold, and three hundred fold in the best
years. But I will not state the dimen
sions (of the plants) I have ascertained,
because I know that for any one who has
not visited Babylonia and witnessed these
facts about the crops for himself they
would be altogether beyond belief."
In the days of the early Caliphate an
inventory showed some 12,500,000 acres
of land under cultivation; and Sir Wil
liam Wilcox in his report, "The Irriga
tion of Mesopotamia," published in 1911,
states that the Tigris-Euphrates delta is
an arid region of some 12,500,000 acres,
but capable of easy leveling and reclama
tion. The Arabic name for this region is
Sawad, which means the black land.
And northern Mesopotamia is equally
rich in possibilities. In ancient days this
was a district "so populous and full of
riches that Rome and the rulers of Iran
fought seven centuries for its possession,
till the Arabs conquered it from both,"
writes A. J. Toynbee.
The same author points out that "in
the ninth century A. D. northern Meso
potamia paid Harun-al-Rashid as great
a revenue as Egypt, and its cotton com
manded the market of the world."
It is
well known that our word muslin is de
rived from the name of the city Mosul,
in Upper Mesopotamia.
SPLENDID POSSIBILITIES; NEGLECTED
RESOURCES
And why shculd this land not be pro
ducing as well as ten centuries ago? The
soil and the climate have not changed.
The rainfall and the water for irrigation
are just as abundant as in the days of
old. The people are the same that lived
then in the land, equally industrious and
thrifty. Why have the past four cen
turies laid a blight over the fairest corn
land of the east?
But it is not Mesopotamia alone that
offers agricultural returns in the Empire
of Turkey. There are the fertile sea
coast plains of ancient Philistia, the up
lands of Moab and Ammon, the wheat
fields of the Hauran south of Damascus,
and the great valley between the Lebanon
and Anti-Lebanon, in Syria; the whole
elevated plateau of central Asia Minor,
with Konia (ancient Iconium) as its
center. There are the fertile river val
leys and hillsides of Armenia and Kur
distan, together with the famous Cilician
plain and the regions about Smyrna and
Broussa.
Not only grain of every kind rewards
the industry of the peasant, but also
fruits of every variety, semi-tropical and
temperate, are easily produced. Who has
not eaten of the figs of Smyrna and the
dates of Bossrah or heard of the grapes
of Eschol?
PRIMITIVE METHODS OF AGRICULTURE
The first interest of the Turkish Em
pire is agricultural. From north to south
and from east to west it offers splendid
opportunities to the farmer. And these
lands in great part lie uncultivated. Res
ervoirs for the storage of water and other
irrigation works that might change desert
acres to producing fields are not con
structed.
The most primitive modes of cultiva
tion are still in use-the ox-drawn plow
of Bible days, the cutting of great fields
of grain with the sickle, the threshing
floor, where wheat is trodden out by the
hoofs of animals; the slow and painful
hand labor, with clumsy instruments, that
yields but a minimum of return for the
effort expended.
It is all a tale of splendid possibilities,
but of neglected and undeveloped re
sources. Yet it is a promise to the future
generation of boundless productivity and
of untold wealth in store for progressive
industry and a benevolent government.
The marvelous resources of this Em
pire are not comprised in its agricultural
possibilities alone. The story of Croesus
gathering gold from the river sands is
not an idle tale. Just this year an Amer
ican missionary writes: "Grains of gold
are frequently found in the gravel left
after the torrential floods."